Super-Size-Me-Spoon!
Carolyn Chute tells the story, in The Beans of Egypt, Maine,
of the depths of poverty in a backwoods town. It could be anywhere in America. She uses a metaphor for a meal in which they
all might gather. In the center, a pot
of delicious stew steams for folks who have not eaten in days. There are no utensils, but a very large spoon
in the center of the table. Everyone
starves. Nobody can feed themselves.
They can’t see that they have to feed others, so that in turn, they too will be
fed. For Chute, real poverty may begin
without food, but there are other deep hungers for self-esteem, spirit, and the
soul. It something we learn to give for
others and then receive in return.
Erich Fromm, in The Art of Loving, reverses much
popular psychology, the “take care of yourself first” self-help. The very act of reaching out
to others is “love,” for Fromm, which in turn is a love created in us. Only by
reaching out to others, do we find lives reaching back to us. The Hebrew Scriptures give us the Golden Rule,
while Christians know Jesus’ words by heart:
“It is more blessed to give than
to receive.”
It all says—pick up the spoon and feed others. Until you do
that, take that risk of life, you will never know what it means for you. The problem is not the size of the spoon—but the
heart, the will that reaches out to others. The option is to sit at the table
with the Beans and starve.
…
whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of natural right, to the poor for
their sustenance. So Ambrose says, "The bread which you withhold belongs
to the hungry: the clothing you shut away, to the naked: and the money you bury
in the earth is the redemption and freedom of the penniless."
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, Q 66 A 7.
No comments:
Post a Comment